It is now the turn of the fruit trees to be stars of the show! They are a bit more flamboyant than the currants and gooseberries that prefer a more subdued display.
Although the plum and gage trees seemed that they were going to disappoint, they have tried their best and I am hoping for at least some fruit. The photo below is the Victoria plum. The Oullins gage that last year produced masses of delicious yellow plums seems to be going to have a rest this year.
The small cherry tree - Summer Sun - is wearing it's blossom like a sleeve.
Just hope the pear tree growing in our garden - Conference - doesn't drop its fruit on the roof of the greenhouse this year
New pear trees planted on the plot have a few flowers too.
The newly planted quince also has a few flowers - although most haven't quite opened yet.
We have a couple of crab apples in the garden. One is John Downie which produces edible fruits as well as being a popular refuge for birds waiting for their turn to visit the bird table.
The other variety - Profusion is also a popular bird haunt. It doesn't produce edible fruit - other than for blackbirds etc but I didn't want it to feel left out. Once all the flowers are fully opened it looks spectacular - it has bronzy coloured leaves too.
The young apple trees are beginning to flower - this will really be their first fruit bearing year - I hope! The one below is Egremont Russet.
We inherited some old cordon apples when we took our plot. Although they are very old now they still produce a good harvest of fruit. Although, in past years, many of the fruits have been spoiled by pests such as codling moth caterpillars that burrow into the fruits.
This year we are making a concerted effort to deal with any pests. We've already greasebanded everything and yesterday hung a codling moth trap. Apparently May is the correct month to install it. The lure inside the trap is supposed to give off a pheromone that attracts male moths, entrapping them and preventing them mating with the females. The lure can then be replaced each year. It also is supposed to be effective over half an acre so our plot neighbours should benefit too.
A second trap has been hung on the apple trees in our garden so we will just have to wait and see if they work!
For a full description of how we are trying to protect our apple trees from pests this year click here
We bought our traps from Harrod Horticultural to view the product on their website click here
PS - I bet you never noticed that I had changed the header picture again!
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That's a lot of blossom, I hope you're well rewarded with plenty of fruit.
ReplyDeleteSo do I Jo
ReplyDeleteLooks like you could be in for a good fruit year...i have just ordered some fruit trees and now just have to wait for 2 weeks for delivery...what are gages like??? Would you recommend them??
ReplyDeleteAlso where did you get your edible crab apple from??? My Mum would really like one
And sh....no I didn't notice the header...sorry!
Hi Tanya,
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether all gages are the same but ours are delicious - not what I expected as they are really sweet. We originally planted them when someone stole al1 our plums - we reckoned that people would think they were unripe plums. One is Reine Claude and the other is Mannings. Our yellow plum Oullins is really a gage too although we didn't know it when we bought it. The fruit os more plum like - it was this one that was robbed!!
Our edible crab is a John Downie - it's a common variety so maybe a garden centre would have it -I'm not sure where we got it from - as we have had it ages but Keepers have it online. Just Google Keepers fruit nursery. We have bought fruit bushes and trees from them and they are good.
The header isn't all that different - just more green on the bushes and trees and of course dandelions!
Beautiful. Spring looks like it has arrived for you.
ReplyDeleteHi Maybelline
ReplyDeleteI do hope so!
So much promise at this time of year, you should get loads of fruit.
ReplyDeleteI shall be REALLY disappointed if we don't - love fruit.
ReplyDeleteIt's never easy to deal with pests. A butterfly needed to pollinate, and yet produce babies that love to eat leaves.... Only when we have a balance of each element, the damage is fair and acceptable...
ReplyDeleteHi Bangchik
ReplyDeleteThis trap only catches codling moth males - it's the codling moth caterpillars that cause the damage - they burrow into the fruit which goes brown inside. It all happens after the blossom falls and the fruit has set.
We have lots of bees happily pollinating our blossom (well the trees' blossom). Although as I have blond hair some do occasionally try and pollinate me too.